DA: Molester Confesses to Murder

A twice-convicted child molester who was the subject of a massive manhunt in Hollywood has confessed to killing a man in a hotel room, according to an L.A. County Deputy District Attorney.

Oscar Bridges, 54, made the alleged admission during a 7-hour interview with Deputy D.A. John Lewin and an L.A. County Sheriff’s homicide detective, according to a newly unsealed transcript of a bizarre secret hearing in the chambers of an L.A. Superior Court judge.

“After the killing, the – Mr. Bridges, had sent a text message to the victim’s mother, in essence apologizing, saying he was a good guy, he didn’t deserve what happened,” Lewin told Judge Kathleen Kennedy February 20.

Detectives and police officers spent days searching the hills and flatlands of Hollywood in February for Bridges, who’s been charged with the January 23 murder of 21-year-old Robert Brewer.

Brewer was found stabbed and nearly decapitated in a motel room on South Vermont Ave., and according to the transcript, Bridges was recorded on security video entering and exiting the room before the body was found.

Bridges was eventually arrested in San Francisco. Despite his criminal history, Bridges told Lewin he had been working as an office manager for defense attorney Louisa Pensanti, who happens to be representing Lonnie Franklin, Jr., the man accused of being the so-called, “Grim Sleeper,” serial killer.

According to the transcript, Bridges called the meeting to tell prosecutors about what he believed was unethical behavior in the law office, including an allegation Pensanti had somehow arranged for herself to be assigned to the Sleeper trial, even though she was not court-qualified to work on a death penalty case.

“You know, there were always suspicions as to how Ms. Pensanti ended up with the representation of Lonnie Franklin, but – nobody had ever said anything concrete,” said Judge Kennedy, according to the transcript.

“It was always, ‘well, how in the heck did she get this case,’” Kennedy said. Bridges said he used an alias during some of his work at the law firm: Seth Silverman, a purposeful play on the name of the prosecutor in the Sleeper trial, Beth Silverman.

The nature of Bridges’ allegations were eventually opened in a hearing in the Sleeper case, but Franklin opted to keep Pensanti as one of his two court-appointed attorneys, officials said.

The Franklin trial is scheduled to begin later this year. Bridges faces the murder charge as well as a second charge he failed to register as a sex offender.